United Kingdom

Map showing the territories of the United Kingdom.

The United Kingdom (UK) is an island country composed of the northern part of the island of Ireland and the whole island of Great Britain—which contains England, Wales, and Scotland. The country is known by various names, including "Britain" (the name of the island) to refer to the UK as a whole. The capital of the United Kingdom is London, which is among the world's leading commercial, financial, and cultural centers. Other major cities in the United Kingdom include Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester in England; Belfast and Londonderry in Northern Ireland; Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland; and Swansea and Cardiff in Wales.

The island country is located off the northwestern coast of mainland Europe and has been a part of the European tradition of written history since the Roman Empire, during which time natural resources and agricultural resources were transported from the island to the economic center, and again with the Roman conquest of the island. The origin of the United Kingdom is often traced to the Anglo-Saxon King Athelstan, who ruled in the early tenth century CE and became the first king to, through the security of allegiances with neighboring kingdoms, rule what had previously been ruled by many.

A printing of an Act of Union during the union between England and Scotland.

Further conquest would stretch this kingdom, often known as England, to Wales—a loose grouping of Celtic kingdoms in the southwest of the island, which would formally be united with England by the Acts of Union of 1536 and 1542. Arguably, this was the first formal development of what would become the United Kingdom. The second came when Scotland, which had been ruled from London as early as 1603, would join England and Wales in 1707. The joining of Scotland through similar Acts of Union formed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, with the adjective "British" coming into use around this time to refer to all of the kingdom's peoples.

Ireland came under English control during the 1600s and was formally united with the United Kingdom through the Act of Union of 1800. The Republic of Ireland would gain independence in 1922, but six of Ulster's nine counties remained as part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland. Relations between these constituent states were marked by controversy, rebellion, and warfare, especially as states chafed under English rule. These tensions would be relaxed to a degree with the introduction of devolved assemblies in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales in the late twentieth century. However, tensions between the unionists of Northern Ireland (who favor British sovereignty) and the nationalists (who prefer unification with the Republic of Ireland) have remained.

After the fall of the British Empire in the early twentieth century, the United Kingdom retained cultural and historical links with its former subjects, colonies, and colonized countries. These "commonwealth" countries retained links with the United Kingdom, allowing for travel amongst these countries, sharing political and economic resources amongst these countries, including the United Kingdom, helping these countries emerge from poverty and pursue common goals, while members of those countries can benefit from the relationship with England through immigration and education.

Map showing the Commonwealth countries.

The United Kingdom has also benefitted from its cultural, historical, and economic links with the European Union. The country became a member of the European Union in 1973. However, there remained hesitancy in the relationship, as the island kingdom had been held on the periphery of European affairs, and as many, including former prime minister Winston Churchill, noted that the United Kingdom needed to have its own dream that is held separate from the dreams and goals of the European Union. However, the two groups have had strong relationships and have been trade partners and cultural partners for a long time.

The concerns around the partnership, from the British side, led to a referendum in June of 2016 on whether the United Kingdom should remain in the European Union, also colloquially known as "Brexit" (British exit). The results of the referendum, a 52 percent vote in favor of leaving the European Union, saw the United Kingdom begin an arduous process that saw negotiations, several deadline extensions, and prolonged domestic political discord (which included two changes of prime minister) before a final agreement on the British exit from the European Union could be reached which satisfied both the European Unions and the majority of the British Parliament. On January 31, 2020, the United Kingdom would become the first member country to leave the European Union.

The United Kingdom comprises four geographic and historical parts, which correspond with the four political portions of the United Kingdom. These are England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. England, Wales, and Scotland constitute what is often considered Great Britain, the larger of the two principal islands that compose the British Isles. The second largest principal island is Ireland, which houses the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

England occupies the majority of southern Great Britain and includes the Isles of Scilly off the southwest coast and the Isle of Wight off the southern coast. Scotland occupies the greater portion of northern Great Britain and includes the Orkney and Shetland islands off the northern coast and the Hebrides off the northwestern coast. Wales lies west of England and includes the island of Anglesey to the northwest.

Satellite imagery of the United Kingdom.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another country; otherwise, the majority of the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. To the south of England, and between Great Britain and France, is the English Channel while between Great Britain and Ireland lies the Irish Sea. The northwestern coast of Northern Ireland, western Scotland, and the southwest of England face the Atlantic Ocean.

At its widest, the United Kingdom is 300 miles across, while the length of Great Britain, from the northern tip of Scotland to the southern coast of England is about 600 miles, and no part of the United Kingdom is more than 75 miles from the sea. Meanwhile, the capital of the United Kingdom, London, is situated on the River Thames, a tidal river, in southeastern England.

The archipelago formed by Great Britain and the numerous smaller islands is irregular in shape but offers diversity in geology and landscape, which tends to stem from the nature and disposition of the underlying rocks, which tend to be westward expansions of European geologic structures that had former land links long since concealed by the shallow waters of the Strait of Dover and the North Sea. While Northern Ireland shares much geographically with Scotland as a westward extension of those Scottish rock structures, which are breached by the narrow North Channel.

Given a global perspective, the geography of the United Kingdom offers rapid changes of scenery, which convey to many visitors—especially those from larger countries—a striking sense of compactness and consolidation. Much of the geography and landscape of the United Kingdom have been impacted and changed by the people who have made a living on the islands for centuries. For example, villages, shires, hamlets, fields, and roads have existed on the island for centuries, and have thus become as much a part of the geography and landscape of the country as the natural diversity.

Great Britain is generally divided into two distinct zones, known as the highland and lowland zones. The line that divides these two regions runs from the mouth of the River Exe, in the southwest, to that of the Tees, in the northeast. The highland zone was created through a long geologic process, which resulted in elevations that, when compared to European equivalents, are low. The highest summit in this region is Ben Nevis at 4,406 feet above sea level. Similarly, the mountainous areas above 2,000 feet often form elevated plateaus with relatively smooth surfaces that offer reminders of previous periods of erosion.

Example of the Scottish Highlands.

Scotland covers much of the highland zone, as much of the geography of the United Kingdom has influenced the political borders that would form the country. Much of this landscape is 1,000 to 3,600 feet above sea level, furrowed by numerous wide valleys, called straths. Meanwhile, occasional areas of lowland are fringed with long lines of sand dunes that contrast sharply with the mountainous highlands. Much of the area shows geography sculpted by glaciers, including hollows, corries, and glens, which are separated by razor-sharp edges and interspersed by freshwater lochs (lakes), which further enhance the area's beauty.

South of the Scottish Highlands are the Scottish Uplands, which present more subdued reliefs and never exceed 2,800 feet in elevation above sea level. This area is characterized by numerous broad plateaus separated by dales with flowing rivers that follow the general slope of the plateau toward the Solway Firth or the Firth of Clyde. And into the lowland zone is the Midland Valley, which lies between great structural faults and includes a wall-like escarpment, which acts like a boundary between the zones.

Northern Ireland is also part of the highland zone, with rugged mountain scenery and peat-covered summits of the Sperrin Mountains, which reach an elevation of 2,241 feet that is reminiscent of the Scottish Highlands. And in a central region of Northern Ireland that corresponds to Scotland's Midland Valley is an outpouring of basaltic lava which formed a large plateau, much of which is occupied by the shallow Lough Neagh, which is the largest freshwater lake in the British Isles.

The highland zone of England and Wales consists of four broad upland masses: the Pennines, the Cumbrian Mountains, the Cambrian Mountains, and the South West Peninsula. The Pennines is generally considered to end in the River Tyne gap, with surface features of several hills in Northumberland, consisting of generally smooth valleys and windswept moorland. The Cumbrian Mountains include the famous Lake District celebrated by poet William Wordsworth, among others, which constitute an isolated, compact mountain group west of the northern Pennines. This range has many deep gorges separated by narrow ridges and sharp peaks of slate rock, with expanses of level upland formed of thick beds of lava and ash thrown out by ancient volcanoes. This includes the highest points in England, including Scafell Pike (elevation 3,210 feet), and Helvellyn (3,116 feet).

Picture from the Cambrian Mountains.

The Cambrian Mountains form the heart of Wales, bordered and defined by the sea on three sides, except on the eastern side where a sharp slope marks the transition to the English lowlands. Erosion has worn the ancient and austere surfaces, with much of the range offering topographic features from glacial processes. The mountain areas of this range are above 2,000 feet and generally are in northern Wales, which includes Snowdonia (Yr Wyddfa), which has an elevation of 3,650 feet and is the highest point in Wales. Central Wales lacks similar areas but is generally a plateau with lower, rounded, grass-covered moorlands.

The South West Peninsula, England's largest peninsula, has six conspicuous uplands in Exmoor, Bodmin Moor, Hensbarrow, Carn Brea, Dartmoor, and Penwith. Despite the variation in elevation in the South West, the landscape is like other parts of the United Kingdom which has a marked uniformity in summit heights between 1,000 to 1,400 feet, with a network of deep and narrow valleys that alternate between flat-topped plateaus rising inland.

Satellite imaging of the Solway Firth.

The lowland zone starts around the Solway Firth in the northwest and extends up the Vale of Eden. Southward, the narrow coastal plain borders the Lake District before broadening into flat Lancashire and Cheshire plains, which are marked by slow-flowing rivers. There are some interruptions to the lowlands, such as the limestone plateau north of the River Tees and the North York Moors, which has large exposed tracts of elevations above 1,400 feet. West of the North York Moors is the Valye of York, which merges with the east Midland plain to the south and terminates on the edge of the Cambrian Mountains to the west, while continuing southward to the flat landscapes which border the lower River Severn.

Picture of the rolling Cotswold landscape.

The flatland becomes constricted by the Bristol-Mendip upland before once more opening up into the extensive and flat plain of Somerset. The land ripples between the scarp face of the Costwolds, which is part of an outcrop of limestone and sandstone that arcs from the Dorset coast to the Cleveland Hills by Yorkshire. Similarly, there are massive limestone and sandstone escarpments, which reach 1,000 feet, but with a shallow slope that makes the countryside resemble a dissected plateau, which passes gradually into the clay vales of Oxford, White Horse, Lincoln, and Pickering.

The White Chalk cliffs of Dover.

This flat landscape moves into a chalk outcrop, which presents open, rolling country, such as where it begins in the Yorkshire Wolds and where it continues to the Lincolnshire Wolds. The rolling chalk outcrop is cut through by several rivers, such as the River Thames, through its rolling landscape, before it begins to fold more dramatically toward the English Channel. In the folds, many of the downfolds were filled in by geologically recent sands and clays, which form the floor of the London and Hampshire basins. Two of the larger upfolds of this geography form the Weald of Kent and Sussex, while another is on the coast of the English Channel, which eroded to form the chalk cliffs which face the European mainland, such as those around Dover.

The climate of the United Kingdom comes from where the series of islands are situated in atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns, as well as its marginal position between the European landmass to the east and the relatively warm Atlantic waters to the west. This creates air masses with a variety of thermal and moisture characteristics, which, based on their sources, range from polar to tropical. This creates a certain uniformity to the climate of the United Kingdom, though there is some limited diversity based on the region.

For much of the year, the weather depends on the sequence of disturbances within the midlatitude westerlies that bring polar maritime and the occasional tropical maritime air; while in the winter, the occasional high-pressure area to the east allows polar continental air to blow across Britain. This means the United Kingdom can experience a line of equal temperature (or isotherm) of 40 degrees Fahrenheit in January which stretches from northwestern Scotland to the Isle of Wight.

Whereas, in the summer, the 9-degree difference in latitude and the distance from the sea begins to impact the weather conditions, such that temperatures increase from north to south and from the inland coast. Tropical air from continental Europe can warm the English Channel coast, while southerly airstreams can cause heatwaves across southern England.

One of the most commonly remarked upon features of the United Kingdom's climate is its rainfall, with rain-producing atmospheric systems often arriving from the Atlantic Ocean, bringing rain to the islands. The highest parts of the highland zone can see as much as 200 inches of rainfall per year, where Norfolk, Suffolk, and the Thames estuary experience as little as 20 inches annually. Rainfall, moreover, is fairly well distributed throughout the year, with June often being the driest month of the year on average, while October, December, and August tend to be the wettest months on average. However, the United Kingdom experiences relatively little snowfall compared to other countries in similar latitudes.

Much of the biodiversity of the United Kingdom has been shaped by the long and consistent history of human occupation. This occupation has seen the extinction of some species of flora and fauna, with few scattered woodlands and areas of wild or seminatural vegetation outside of cultivated fields. Meanwhile, the moorlands and heathlands, which present as being wild, offer varying degrees of adjustments made to the flora for grazing, swaling (controlled burning), and similar activities.

Forests of the United Kingdom.

The Forestry Commission was created in 1919 to protect the woodland of the United Kingdom, which covers less than one-tenth of the country, and of which, nearly two-thirds remain in private hands. The largest woodland areas include northeastern Scotland, Northumberland, the Ashdown Forest in Sussex, Gwynedd in Wales, and Breckland in Norfolk.

Example of heathlands.

Moorlands and heathlands occupy about one-fourth of the total area of the United Kingdom. These areas tend to consist of arctic-alpine vegetation on some of the mountain summits in Scotland, while the moors and heaths of much of the highland zone are home to peat moss, heather, bilberry, and thin Molinia and Nardus grass. Similar vegetation exists in similar moors and heaths in Northern Ireland and on the Mournes. In the lowland zones, much of the soil is light and sandy, and the moorlands are commonly covered by common heather, which has a deep purple color. The areas also contain bilberry and bell heather.

Similar to the flora of the United Kingdom, much of the animal life of the country has been impacted by long-term human settlement and the shaping influence that has caused. Generally, the wild mammals, amphibians, and reptiles that exist in the country tend to be adaptable and capable of protecting themselves from human settlement. Many of the former larger mammals, such as boards, reindeer, and wolves, have become extinct, while red deer survive in the Scottish Highlands and in Exmoor Forest, while roe deer survive in the wooded areas of Scotland and southern England.

Example of a red squirrel unique to the United Kingdom.

Smaller carnivores, such as badgers, otters, foxes, stoats, and weasels, thrive in rural areas. Similarly, many rodents and insectivores, such as rats, squirrels, mice, hedgehogs, moles, shrews, and rabbits are widespread throughout the country, with increasing numbers, as they tend to be adaptable to the changing environment. Amphibians of the country tend to include species of newt, frogs, and toads. While reptile species include three species of snakes, which includes the venomous adder, and various species of lizards. Northern Ireland has no snakes.

Similarly, much of the rivers of Britain were once renowned for their fish, which included species of salmon, trout, roach, perch, pike, and grayling. However, these waterways have since been polluted and inland fishing has declined, often limited to recreation and sport fishing. Meanwhile, the Dogger Bank in the North Sea is one of the richest fishing grounds in the world, according to some estimates. There are other good fishing waters in the Irish Sea off the western coast of Scotland. Offshore species include cod, haddock, whiting, mackerel, coalfish, turbot, herring, and plaice.

The United Kingdom is well known for its bird life, especially as the islands are part of migratory networks. Further, the United Kingdom offers coastal, farmland, and urban habitats for birds. And throughout those habitats and migratory networks, there are some 200 bird species, of which more than one-half are migratory. Many of these species are versatile to changing conditions, and it is estimated that suburban gardens throughout the United Kingdom have a higher bird density than any of the woodlands.

Examples of various sparrows, one of the most plentiful birds in the United Kingdom.

The most common bird species across the United Kingdom are sparrow, blackbird, chaffinch, and starling; while the most populous game birds are wild pigeon, pheasant, and grouse. Much of the ornithilogical life through marshland has been displaced to various bird sanctuaries, for both research and conservation. These various bird refuges, sanctuaries, and reserves are where the majority of displaced waterfowl find themselves.

The structure of the government of the United Kingdom was, largely, established following the seventeenth-century revolutions, which stripped the country of its monarchy before, eventually, reestablishing the monarchy. The revolution built a constitutional monarch, in which the country's head of state remains the reigning king or queen, while the head of government is the prime minister who leads the major political party in the House of Commons, established by a public vote. The constitutional monarchy was built upon various constitutional documents, stretching back to the 1215 Magna Carta, and has since expanded into other constitutional documents. However, unlike other constitutional democracies or constitutional democracies, the United Kingdom's constitution is uncodified, meaning it is only partly written and flexible.

The Houses of Parliament reside in the Palace of Westminster.

The main elements of the government include the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. These branches have some overlap, and there is no formal separation of powers or systems of checks and balances. However, constitutional reforms, such as those in 2005, have worked to create clearer lines around these branches, their powers, and their responsibilities. Sovereignty of the country resides in Parliament, which is comprised of the country's monarch, the mainly appointed House of Lords, and the elected House of Commons. As of 2016, all 650 members of the House of Commons represented an individual constituency by winning the vote in that constituency. While the House of Lords, which has historically consisted of hereditary peers (or nobles), in 2016 had 701 life peers, 88 hereditary peers, and a further 26 bishops and archbishops of the 815 members.

Parliament of the United Kingdom.

All political power resides with the prime minister and the cabinet with the monarch compelled to act on their advice. The cabinet is chosen by the prime minister from his MPs in his political party, with most cabinet ministers holding positions as heads of government departments. The power of the prime minister expanded during the twentieth century, with the sole figure making more decisions previously made by the cabinet, although the cabinet reserves the power to overrule the prime minister. The monarch retains a royal right of veto; however, the right has not been exercised since the early eighteenth century.

Image of the Scottish Parliament.

By 1999, within the United Kingdom, national assemblies in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland took power and assumed some powers previously held by the central Parliament at Westminster, to which they remain subordinate. The central Parliament retains full legislative and executive control over England, which lacks a separate regional assembly.

Scotland's Parliament has power over matters such as health, education, housing, transport, the environment, and agriculture. Similarly, it has the power to increase or decrease the British income tax rate within Scotland within three percentage points, and it has responsibility for foreign affairs, defense, social security, and overall economic policy. All members of the Scottish Parliament are chosen under a system or proportional representation.

Welsh Assembly house.

Since 1999, Wales had its own assembly, which only in 2011 gained direct lawmaking power. It broadly administers the same services as the Scottish Parliament, with members of the Welsh assembly similarly elected by proportional representation.

Northern Ireland, similarly, has limited legislative and executive power, with members elected by proportional representation. The Assembly in Northern Ireland has power over agriculture, economic development, education, the environment, health, and social services. The Northern Ireland Assembly has, through its history, been threatened by divisions between unionist and nationalist factions, which, if either faction withdraws, could dissolve the Assembly and return Northern Ireland to a system of direct rule.

Each part of the United Kingdom has a distinct system of local government. These local governments have few legislative powers and work within the framework of laws passed by the Central Parliament or the Scottish Parliament in Scotland. The powers they do have include the power to enact regulations and levy council taxes, or property taxes, within established limits. In all localities, these governments are funded by the council taxes levied, by business rates, fees from services, and grants from the central governments.

Per region, the local governments will have different responsibilities. Generally, across the United Kingdom, they are responsible for a range of community services including environmental matters, education, highways and traffic, social services, firefighting, sanitation, planning, housing, parks and recreation, and elections. In Scotland and Wales, some of these responsibilities are handled by the regional government rather than the local government. While in Northern Ireland, the Assembly handles most of these responsibilities, with local government limited to environmental matters, sanitation, and recreation.

Parts of the United Kingdom have as many as three levels, or tiers, of local government with further subdivided responsibilities. Throughout England, this includes parish and town councils that form the lowest tier with the power to assess "precepts" on local rates and a range of rights and duties, such as the maintenance of commons and recreational facilities and participation in the planning process. Community councils have similar roles in Wales, whereas a community council in Scotland is a voluntary and consultive body with few statutory powers.

The next tier is the district, borough, or city. In Northern Ireland, this is the only level of local government. In Scotland and Wales, this is the second tier and the only one with broad powers over local government functions. In Wales, these local governments are known as either counties or county boroughs, while in Scotland they are also known as council areas or local government authorities. In England, where the second tier of local government is the only one with statutory and administrative powers, they are known as unitary authorities or metropolitan boroughs.

Administrative counties, which cover much of England, are the highest tier of local government where they exist. These administrative counties have statutory and administrative powers, while in metropolitan counties, they serve as geographical and statistical units, while their administrative powers belong to the constituent boroughs. Further, there are units known as either ceremonial counties or geographic counties, which form geographic and statistical units, often comprising an administrative county or one or more unitary authorities.

Further, every part of the United Kingdom is part of what is known as a historic county. Historic counties are geographic and cultural units formed since the Middle Ages that historically had a variety of administrative powers. The Local Government Act of 1888 reassigned the administrative powers of the historic counties to new administrative counties which often had the same names as the historic counties with altered boundaries. Successive local government reorganizations in the 1970s and 1990s have altered these boundaries over, such that no administrative unit corresponds directly to a historic county, despite these administrative counties continuing to carry the same name of the historic counties. However, the historic counties are maintained as cultural units, serving as a focal point for local, cultural, and sporting identity.

Members of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.

As part of the judicial branch of the constitutional monarchy, justices are an important part of the United Kingdom's justice system. Justices are recruited from practicing lawyers, and once appointed, they are virtually irremovable. The courts declare the law, but the courts accept any act of Parliament as part of the law, and they do not possess the power of judicial review in the United Kingdom. Through the justice system of the United Kingdom, all accused persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty. To ensure this, the courts enforce a law of contempt to prevent newspapers or television from prejudicing a trial before a jury. A verdict in a criminal case rests on a majority vote of the jury. In Scotland, this is a simple majority, whereas in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland there can be no more than two dissenting votes.

Across the United Kingdom, all citizens aged eighteen or older are eligible to vote in parliamentary and local elections, while all other public posts are filled by appointment. Each member in the House of Commons represents one parliamentary constituency. Constituency size is different per region, with Scotland and Wales being smaller in population than those in England, while those in Northern Ireland are smaller than those in England.

For voters, registration is compulsory and carried out annually. Local parties choose candidates for election to Parliament or a local council, and the head of a party is also chosen by the party, rather than by the voters. The members of the House of Commons are elected for a maximum term of five years, while the prime minister has the right to ask the monarch to dissolve the Parliament and call a general election. However, there remain specific circumstances, since the Fixed-term Parliament Act of 2011, under which an election can be called outside of those five-year terms.

The United Kingdom technically has a plurality of political parties. However, the country works on a near two-party system, with the dominant parties being the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. These parties have reigned dominant since the 1920s. Smaller parties include the Liberal Democrats, the United Kingdom Independence Party, the Scottish National Party, Plaid Crymru (Welsh Nationalist Party), and the Loyalist and Republican parties in Northern Ireland. These parties have each gained representation in Parliament.

The United Kingdom has a tradition of an independent economy with an emphasis on foreign trading, which began with agricultural products and would be at the forefront of the nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution. The country's economy struggled as it emerged from the Second World War, taking nearly forty years to recover, with additional stimulation after 1973 from membership in the European Economic Community, which would be succeeded by the European Union. The country continues to manufacture goods, but manufacturing has declined to one-fifth of the total economy, with services providing the greatest source of growth.

Trading ties with the United Kingdom shifted over the twentieth century from its former empire to other members of the EU, which came to account for more than half its trade in goods. The United States is another major trading partner of the country and a major investment partner of the United Kingdom, while Japan has also become a significant investor in local production. Often American and Japanese companies have chosen the United Kingdom as their European base.

Example of fields separated by hedgerows typical of the United Kingdom.

The United Kingdom is unusual among European countries in that only about 2 percent of its population is engaged in agriculture. Commercial intensification of yields plus a high level of mechanization has seen the output of some agricultural products exceed demand. However, following the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union, the government has developed policies to reduce these surpluses, which is expected to continue a trend of reduced employment in agriculture. Much of the United Kingdom's population is in rural areas, some of which are remote from towns, and policies have been directed at creating alternative employment in these communities that have been hit hardest by the reduction in agriculture.

The most important farmed crops include wheat, barley, oats, sugar beets, potatoes, and rapeseed, with a significant proportion of wheat, barley, and rapeseed provided for animal feed before the remainder is processed for human consumption through milling, malting, and distilling. The main livestock products of the country come from cattle and calves, sheep and lambs, pigs, and poultry. The United Kingdom has achieved a high level of self-sufficiency in main agricultural products, with the exception of sugar and cheese.

The United Kingdom devotes about one-tenth of its land area to productive forestry. These woodlands, managed by the Forestry Commission, supply domestic timber demand, although it is only capable of providing less than one-fifth of the United Kingdom's demand. The majority of new plantings are conifer trees in upland areas, but broad-leaved trees are planted where appropriate.

The United Kingdom is one of Europe's leading fishing countries, but the industry in the country has been in a long-term decline since the mid-1970s when fishing limits were introduced. A significant portion of those areas covered by the fishing limits were shared by the European Union, reducing the opportunities of fisheries from the United Kingdom and reducing the overall catch amount of their fisheries when compared to fisheries of other countries in the European Union. The United Kingdom's fisheries supply half of the country's total demand, with the most important fish including cod, haddock, mackerel, whiting, plaice, lobsters, crabs, and oysters. Estuarine fish farming has also expanded with these fishing limits, with salmon and trout being the main products.

The United Kingdom has relatively limited supplies of economically valuable minerals, with a history of exporting minerals that has, in some cases, exhausted the country's supply. For example, the extraction of iron ore, once one of the most important extractions, has dwindled to almost nothing. The metals that continue to be extracted include tin and zinc. Other, nonmetallic minerals extracted include sand and gravel, limestone, dolomite, chalk, slate, barite, talc, clay, clay shale, kaolin, ball clay, fuller's earth, celestine, and gypsum.

Coal mining in the United Kingdom.

The United Kingdom has relatively large energy resources, including oil, natural gas, and coal. Traditionally, coal was an important fuel for the British economy, but with increasing concerns around climate change, and with better fuel options, coal has decreased in importance. The peak year of coal use was in 1913 when more than 300 million tons of coal was output; it has since fallen by four-fifths, with increased mechanization leading to decreases in the labor force.

Discovery of oil in the North Sea led to the rapid development of oil exploitation, and the United Kingdom became virtually self-sufficient and an exporter of oil. With an average output of around three million barrels per day at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the United Kingdom was one of the world's largest producers, with much of the revenue invested abroad to offset the anticipated diminishment of oil income. Offshore natural gas supply from the North Sea has also replaced previously coal-based supplies, with a national network of distribution pipelines, offering the country self-sufficiency in the oil and natural gas sector.

Nuclear power plant in the United Kingdom.

Similarly, nuclear fuel has been used for electricity generation and has expanded, while there are some limited hydroelectric power generation plants generally located in Scotland that offer a small proportion of the country's overall energy production.

The manufacturing sector has continued to decrease since its height in the early twentieth century both in terms of its employment and contribution to the United Kingdom's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The decline in manufacturing led to a rapid rise in unemployment in the early 1980s. However, British manufacturing continues to be an important part of the country's economy, with the most important manufacturing industries (relative to the GDP) being engineering; food, beverages (including alcoholic beverages), and tobacco; chemicals; paper, printing, and publishing; metals and minerals; and textiles, clothing, footwear, and leather.

Meanwhile, the sectors that have shown growth and are expected to continue to grow include the chemical and electrical engineering sectors. In the chemicals industry, pharmaceuticals and specialty products have shown the most promise in growth. Within the engineering industry, electrical, instrument, and transport engineering have grown faster than mechanical engineering, especially with the global growth of electronic products. The British automobile sector has been on the decline since the 1970s. During the 1980s, the steel manufacturing industry was restructured and has since increased its productivity, output, and exports.

The United Kingdom, and specifically London, has been a traditional financial center of the world. Restructuring and deregulation transformed the sector during the 1980s and 1990s, with changes in banking, insurance, the London Stock Exchange, shipping, and commodity markets that have led to decreased clarity in different financial institutions. For example, housing loans, which were once the responsibility of building societies, were deregulated, allowing banks and insurance companies to enter this area of lending, and leading to a general blending of these companies, with building societies offering virtual banks with personal cashing facilities, and banks and insurance companies offering real estate services.

Financial services at the end of the twentieth century in the United Kingdom continued to be one of the largest sectors of the economy, employing more than one million people and contributing about one-twelfth of the GDP. While the industry has grown and spread to some medium-sized cities, such as Leeds and Edinburgh, London continues to dominate the industry and has grown in size and influence in terms of being a center of international financial operations. London has more foreign banks than most other cities in the world, although the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union is expected by some to change this.

A variety of other financial services institutions, including insurance companies, pension funds, and investment and unit trusts, have worked to channel individual and group savings into investments. These institutions tend to be the primary providers of home mortgages and corporate lending and leasing and serve the leasing of business equipment. Meanwhile, many factoring companies provide cash to creditors and collect corporate debts owed. Much of the country's financial corporations also provide venture capital funding for innovative or high-risk companies to supplement the medium- and long-term markets.

Beginning in 1997, the United Kingdom's governance sought to restructure the oversight of its financial services market with the establishment of the Financial Services Authority (FSA). The FSA replaced a series of separate supervisory organizations, some of which relied on self-regulation. Among other responsibilities, the FSA is responsible for the supervision of the United Kingdom's commercial banks from the Bank of England. However, after criticism over the FSA's response to the financial crisis of 2008, it was replaced in 2013 with three new bodies: the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which regulates financial service firms to protect consumers; the Financial Policy Committee (FPC); and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). The last two are embedded in the Bank of England, which regained supervision and regulation of banks.

Image of the plaque of the Bank of England.

The Bank of England, besides having a role in the regulation of the banking and financial services sector, also retains sole right to issue banknotes in England and Wales, while banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland have limited rights to do this in their own areas. In 1997, the Bank of England was also given the power to set the benchmark interest rate, which influences the general structure of interest rates, with the bank's standing instruction to set an interest rate to meet a target inflation rate of 2.5 percent per annum. Further, the Bank of England is tasked with actively intervening in foreign exchange markets and acts as the government's banker.

Further, the United Kingdom has a number of organized financial markets. The securities markets comprise the International Stock Exchange, which deals in officially listed stocks and shares, including governmental issues, traded options, stock index options, and currencies options; the Unlisted Securities Markets, which deals in smaller companies; and the Third Market, for small unlisted companies. Similarly, the share of invisible trade has risen in the United Kingdom since the 1960s, growing from about one-third to one-half of the country's total foreign earnings, with transactions being a large portion of this share.

One of the fastest-growing sectors of the United Kingdom's economy at the end of the twentieth century was the services industry, which provides around two-thirds of the GDP and three-fourths of the country's total employment. The rise of this sector of the economy has reflected the rise in personal incomes and changes in patterns of personal expenditure, which has seen an increase in the outsourcing of business services. Growing service industries have included hotels and catering, air travel, leisure activities, distribution, and finance. Business support services, such as computing systems and software, management consultancy, advertising, and market research, have also experienced rapid growth. Britain is also a base for some of the world's leading auction houses, while the country's historical and cultural treasures make the country a tourist destination, with London being among the world's most-visited cities.

The United Kingdom, in part based on its high population density in the country's otherwise small area, has undergone changes in patterns of transportation, with the country experiencing rapid growth in automobile ownership, which grew by the turn of the twenty-first century to nearly two-thirds of all households owning at least one automobile. With the increase in personal automobile ownership, there was a decline in the use of local buses, and a transfer of internal freight from rail to road increased the importance of maintaining and developing road networks (especially motorways and trunk roads). However, despite the growth of automobile ownership, intercity rail services and commuter services in major metropolitan areas have increased, increasing mobility throughout the United Kingdom; and, thanks to the Channel Tunnel rail link, increasing mobility between England and France.

In terms of telecommunications, until the 1980s, the telecommunication industry was controlled by the government. With the privatization of British Telecom (BT) in the 1980s, the government deregulated the country's telecommunication sector. While BT remains the largest telecommunication company, other operators have emerged to provide services for cable, wireless, fiber-optic, and other telecommunications services. Similarly, with the deregulation of the industry, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) was formed as an independent regulatory agency to oversee the sector.

The United Kingdom's population and demographics have been impacted by centuries of migration to and from the islands. These migrations began as early as the pre-Roman history, when the expansion of the Roman empire pushed various tribes from areas near the empire to search new land, which ended up being Britain. Similarly, the Roman empire would eventually expand the United Kingdom, and since that expansion, which, according to some, brought Britain into European history. Since then, invasions from the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, and Normans have impacted the population and demographics of the island.

After 1945, large numbers of other European refugees settled in the country, and larger immigrant communities from the West Indies and South Asia grew in the 1950s and 1960s. Further, substantial groups of Americans, Australians, and Chinese, amongst various other Europeans, settled in the country. Beginning in the 1970s, immigration to the United Kingdom increased from other areas, such as Latin America, Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India, creating more diverse communities throughout the United Kingdom. However, the majority of these immigrant populations are disproportionately concentrated in inner-city areas, with more than half living in Greater London.

Due to the series of migrations to the United Kingdom, the languages spoken in the country have changed with time. That said, all of the traditional languages spoken in the United Kingdom ultimately derive from a common Indo-European language, which is considered one of the earliest languages developed by humans before being split over millennia into a variety of languages, each with its own peculiarities in grammar, sounds, and vocabulary. This root language would split into distinct languages in what became the United Kingdom, especially during the period when the British Isles were cut off from regular communication with the parent languages on the European continent.

Of the surviving languages, the earliest to arrive were two forms of Celtic: the Goedelic, from which Irish, Manx, and Scottish Gaelic derive; and Brythonic, from which the old Cornish language and modern Welsh developed. Among contemporary Celtic languages, Welsh is the strongest, with about one-fifth of the total population of Wales able to speak it. Scottish Gaelic has a strong presence on the islands of the Outer Hebrides and Skye. However, because less than 2 percent of Scots are able to speak Gaelic, it has ceased to be a national language.

In Northern Ireland, little Irish is spoken; similarly, Manx is no longer spoken, although it was spoken by about half the people of the Isle of Man as late as 1870. The last known native speakers of Cornish died in the eighteenth century.

The second link the languages of the country have with the Indo-European proto-language is through the ancient Germanic language group which, through the invasions of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, all who arrived before the fifth century CE would change the languages spoken in Britain. Further, invasions and occupations by the Danes, who began raiding the British Isles around 790, would influence the language of the parts of northern and eastern England, which would be occupied by the Danes. During this period, the Humber became an important linguistic and geographic boundary, with the English-speaking territory divided into a Northumbrian province and a Southumbrian province.

The other major impact on the development of this unique linguistic area came in 1066 with the invasion of the French-speaking Normans. Although the Normans were of Viking stock, the English population regarded the Normans as a more alien group of people than the Danes. Under the Norman and Angevin kings, England formed part of a continental empire with a connection to France and its throne. This prolonged connection developed a hybrid speech, which mingled Anglo-Saxon (a previously mingled grouping of northern Germanic dialects, along with the dialects of the local Britons whom they occupied) and Norman French. This language would eventually evolve into modern English, with the Normans arguably—despite other additions to the language—being the last important linguistic group to enter Britain.

Previous to the later migrations to the country, the United Kingdom has largely been a Christian nation, with several Christian denominations emerging in the country's history, and with the country having a national denomination of the faith—the Church of England—after Henry VIII's rejection of the supremacy of the Roman Catholic Pope. Roman Catholicism was introduced and displaced previous druidic religious practices and pagan religious practices in Britain in 597, when, apocryphally Saint Augustine was sent on a mission to convert Britain to Christianity.

Following the formation of the Church of England, which adopted some Protestant tenets, Scotland in turn established the Church of Scotland, which was governed by presbyteries—local bodies of ministers and elders—rather than bishops, as was the case in the Church of England. While in Ireland, the dominance of Roman Catholicism was almost wholly undisturbed by these events. However, in Northern Ireland, adherents to the Anglican and Scottish churches grew.

The seventeenth century saw further schisms in the Church of England. These schisms were in part a consequence of the Puritan movement, which gave rise to so-called nonconformist denominations, such as the Baptists and the Congregationalists, which reflected the Puritan desire for simple forms of worship and church governance. This also gave rise to the Society of Friends (Quakers). While religious revivals of the mid-eighteenth century gave Wales a form of Protestantism in the Presbyterian Church of Wales (or Calvinistic Methodism), which retains its importance in Wales.

The eighteenth century also saw Evangelical revivals, including the foundation of the Methodist church, often in industrial areas such as Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire, and Cornwall, where larger percentages of Methodists continue to exist. The nineteenth century saw the Salvation Army and other fundamentalist faiths develop, while around this time, denominations from the United States gained adherents as well.

During the twentieth century, immigration increased to the United Kingdom, and with that came the introduction of new religious groups to the country. This included a Jewish reestablishment in the United Kingdom, which began in the seventeenth century after all Jews were expelled from Britain in 1290, and the growth of communities practicing Islam, Hinduism, and Sikhism. The introduction of various new religions to the country also saw an increase in a growing tradition of religious tolerance.

How the flags of England, Scotland, and Ireland influenced the development of the Union Jack.

The flag of the United Kingdom is the Union Flag, often called the "Union Jack." The flag is a composition of the flags of England (the St. George), Scotland (the St. Andrew), and Ireland (St. Patrick's Cross). The individual country flags are often used, as the St. Patrick's Cross flag is often seen in Northern Ireland on St. Patrick's Day; however, Northern Ireland has its own flag after its split from the Republic of Ireland, known as the Ulster Banner. For Wales, due to its political integration into the English kingdom hundreds of years prior to the Acts of Union, its flag is not represented on the Union Flag.

Archeologists have discovered evidence of settlement in the United Kingdom as early as 800,000 to 1 million years ago. Most knowledge of Britain before Roman conquest is murky, at best, as any written historical records that may have existed have not survived, while Roman documents of the island continue to survive. This means much of the ancient history of the United Kingdom has been lost; at the time, the history was a collection of tribes that would emerge, by the time of Roman conquest, with distinct cultures, religious beliefs, and languages. However, some of what has been discovered has been the introduction of agriculture around 4000 BCE by Neolithic immigrants from the coasts of western and, potentially, northwestern Europe.

Evidence from this period shows tools commonly made of flint used in mining and agriculture, as well as axes of volcanic rock. Burial practices are present at this time, with the dead buried in tombs built of stone under mounds of rubble in the west of the country, while in the east, where there is less stone, the dead were buried under long barrows (mounds of earth). There is also evidence of religion from this period in enclosures that developed into more clearly ceremonial ditch-enclosed earthworks known as henge monuments.

Stonehenge is an example of early prosperity in the United Kingdom.

Around 2300 BCE, imports from Britain, such as amber and other minerals, appear in graves in Mycenae in Greece. This trade is believed to have resulted in prosperity that allowed chieftains of the period to build monuments, such as those at Stonehenge. Further, around 1200 BCE, there is clearer evidence of agriculture in the south, with farms consisting of oblong fields and stock enclosures around circular huts. Around this time, with increased contact with European neighbors, some of the earliest hill-forts in Britain were constructed.

By the seventh century BCE, with continued contact with continental Europe, knowledge of iron and the working of iron were introduced, which facilitated land clearance to mine the valuable metal. The earliest ironsmiths emerged around this time, with some of the earliest ironsmiths forming daggers of the Hallstatt type but in a distinctly British form. The use of iron coincided with an increase in population in Britain.

Around this time, a "Celtic" culture emerged, with farms of a traditional roundhouse and a system of small fields and pens and storage pits for grain in the Celtic style. Similarly, the development of iron swords began to appear, along with other warlike equipment, decorated in a Celtic style. Cornish tin was discovered around this time, noted by Pytheas of Massalia, a Greek explorer.

Following the conquest of Julius Caesar in 55 or 54 BCE, Britain was brought into contact with the Roman world and the written historical record. Caesar established client relationships with several tribes of Britain, which would be extended under Augustus. The tribes that were not under Roman control tried to fight back against the invaders, but this only, especially under emperor Claudius, increased aggression against those British tribes, which led to an army of four legions and auxiliary regimens to land in Britain in 43 CE.

Roman ruins in Britain.

The Roman army took the British forces by surprise and defeated them. The campaign continued from its landing at Richborough, Kent to the Thames before it paused to await the arrival of the Roman emperor. Following this, some tribes of Britain resisted the expansion of Roman control, while others submitted, and yet others asked the Romans for help in their tribal affairs. Following the conquest, Romans were able to settle, especially veterans of the legions, in the area, offering the legions a strategic reserve as well as establishing Roman cities.

The Roman occupation of Britain changed the area, as towns were founded in the Roman style, roads were built, merchants were introduced into Britain, and goods were traded to and from the United Kingdom. Wales was occupied by the Romans, while invasions into northern Scotland failed, leaving Scotland often as a wild area, defined first by Hadrian's stone wall built at the Solway-Tyne isthmus, while a second wall was built between Glasgow-Edinburgh, known as the Antonine-wall. This second wall was built of turf, rather than stone, and Hadrian's wall became the permanent border of the Roman period.

Remainder of Hadrian's wall.

These lines, although they were drawn as early as 90 CE, demarcated geographical and cultural borders, which would last for hundreds if not thousands of years. Roman occupation also brought prosperity to the controlled territories while those surrounding territories did not enjoy the same advantage. During this period, Roman Britain exported iron, silver, gold, hides, hounds, grain, and slaves. At the same time, a new style of farm emerged, based on the Roman villa (large estate) which existed behind the Celtic farming system, increasing the overall productivity. Further, around this time, the export of wool became an important export, with a reputation that spanned the entire Roman empire.

Following the collapse of the Roman occupation of Britain, due to increasing conflict with native tribes such as the Picts and Scots and due to the overall contraction of the Roman empire, the country was left in a series of fractured kingdoms. This led to a series of kings and chieftains leading their kingdoms to a series of wars against others as they tried to wrest control from each other. These conflicts led to a British king, often considered the king of the Britons, to invite mercenaries from three Germanic tribes—the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes—to help defend against these attacks. The tradition holds that these mercenaries would revolt against their employers, which led to large-scale Germanic settlements near the coasts of Britain.

Artistic representation of the conquest of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes in Britain.

There was intermingling between these groups; however, the Britons would be driven west to the borders of Dumnonia (modern Cornwall and Devon) while the invaders continued to advance north before being stopped by the northern tribes. By the end of the seventh century (with the Germanic invasions beginning in the sixth century), there is evidence that the Britons were not extinguished and the people regarded themselves as belonging to the nation of the English, while remaining divided amongst several kingdoms. This led to the establishment of an overlord, or ruling by a single ruler, with the most important early such leader being Aethelberht of Kent, according to history, especially as he oversaw the establishment of Christianity in England, which led to a greater unity across the country.

Woodcut of St. Augustine bringing Christianity to Britain.

Within a century of the establishment of Christianity in Britain, the country was at the forefront of scholarship in Europe. This rose, in part, due to the combination of influences that were worked on Britain, including from Ireland, which had escaped the decay caused by barbarian invasions in Britain, and that from the Roman Catholic church and the Mediterranean, often reaching Britain through bishops and archbishops. Around this time, the English, Welsh, and Northumbrian kingdoms began to engage in conflict that would lead first to the defeat of the Welsh and Scots by the Northumbrian kingdom led by Aethelfrith, before he was himself defeated by Edwin, the heir of the southern peoples of United Kingdom. Edwin would then become the overlord of England (except Kent) and Wales. However, with Edwin's death, the kingdom would fall to squabbling, in a series of conflicts that continued for generations.

Around the late eighth century, small-scale Viking raids began in England, but by the ninth century, these invasions became large-scale plundering incursions, which led to conquest on the part of Danish Vikings. The invasions and incursions led to various occupations of different kingdoms, which were repeatedly repulsed by the people in Britain and Scotland.

The Kingdom of England, as an identified kingdom, largely grew out of the invasions of the Danish Vikings, with King Athelstan taking possession of various kingdoms before accepting the submission of the kings of Wales to his kingship, as well as the kings of Scotland and the rulers of Northumbria beyond the Tyne. This unification was to force the Danish Vikings from the kingdom but maintained it throughout his life. Following his death, however, the kingdom crumbled into its constituent parts, and in some areas, Danish occupation resumed. In many places, this created an Anglo-Danish state, in which Danes occupied and settled parts of England and Britain.

Norman conquest on the Bayeux tapestry.

The formal identity of England is often thought to have been established with the Norman invasion of 1066, which saw William I conquer much of what would later become England and go through a course of Normanization, which introduced feudalism to England, which subordinated the Anglo-Saxon, or English, people to Norman aristocrats. This also created an English empire, as William I maintained his lands in Normandy, and other parts of France, which were inherited by his descendants.

Another important point in the development of Britain into the United Kingdom came under the rule of Edward I. He was considered by many to be the ideal medieval king, in that he was a capable warrior who enjoyed war and statecraft. He participated in crusades, lacked sympathy for others, and was obstinant and inflexible. During his rule, a 1274 inquiry into government resulted in the so-called Hundred Rolls, which were records that evidenced the need for legal change and led to the 1275 First Statute of Westminster.

Portrait of Edward I.

Beyond that, Edward waged a campaign in Wales in which he used unrest during his rule to expand the English authority throughout Wales. This authority would be further enforced through the Treaty of Conway, in which the Welsh kings were required to perform fealty and homage and surrender districts of North Wales. This led to Welsh resentment toward Edward and his kingdom. Resentment led to the second Welsh war, which would prove worse for the English than the first. In the succeeding peace, North Wales was organized into counties, while major castles were built around Wales.

Edward would further, after the subjugation of Wales, emphasize his claims to feudal suzerainty over Scotland, which would provoke a Scottish resistance. Edward would wage a swift and successful campaign against the Scots in 1296. But the victory would be short-lived, as the officials appointed to rule in Scotland were inept, leading to a revolt of that rule in 1297, headed by William Wallace and Andrew Moray. However, the revolt would ultimately fail and Edward would be successful by 1304. He would begin referring to Scotland as a land rather than a kingdom. However, by 1306, Robert de Bruce, who fought for both sides during the war, seized the Scottish throne and reopened the conflict. The campaigns against the Scots and for the Scottish throne would continue.

Amongst the wars with Scotland and France, the fourteenth century saw the Peasant's Revolt, which tried to wrest some control from the crown for the average peasant but also tried to undo policy that tried to stop peasants from earning more money for their labor, and pushing back against expanding powers of the justices of the king at the expense of the local and manorial courts. This came after the Black Death, which burned through the United Kingdom during 1361 and 1369 and caused great social tension throughout the kingdom.

Portrait of Henry VII holding the "Tudor Rose".

Following tensions of the fourteenth century, the state was subjected to increasing inconsistency and disruption in their kings, especially as the kings began to war with France over the loss of the lands they owned since the Norman invasion. However, with the loss of those lands, and by the reign of Henry VI, France was lost, and the English lost wars with France. This led into the War of Roses, in which the houses of York and Lancaster fought for the throne, each with their claims to the English throne, which resulted in the ascension of Henry VII, also known as Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, who seized the throne in 1485. The end of the baronial conflict led to an era of prosperity for all people of England. This included using marriage to ensure peace with his neighbors, such as the marriage of Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon, while Henry VII married his daughter Margaret to James IV of Scotland.

Portrait of the infamous Henry VIII.

This led to the ascendency of Henry VIII, which, through his desire for divorce and the general Reformation occurring in Europe, led to the development of the Church of England. Further, Henry VIII led to an expansion of the English state. This included incorporating Wales, which had long been under English jurisdiction, into parliament and English Parliament. In 1541, the Irish Parliament passed an act creating the Kingdom of Ireland and declared it an appendage to the English crown, which led to English viceroys seeking to impose English law, customs, and social norms upon Ireland. He did not seek to incorporate Scotland into his imperium but worked to keep Scotland on his side during his feud with Rome.

Portrait of Elizabeth I, last of the Tudors.

Elizabeth I would ascend the throne after years of fighting over succession. She would reinforce the policies of her father, Henry VIII, and worked to reduce tensions over religious policies. During her reign, Elizabeth followed an aim of government, which has been called "medieval" or "Tudor," in which she enacted the Poor Law of 1601 in which the state took over poor relief and provided work for able-bodied, punished the indolent, and required charity for the sick, aged, and disabled.

This created a balance for many, even the poor, which led to a revolution of reading, seeing a majority of men, and possibly women, in the kingdom being literate and purchasing works to read. This led to an increase in poets, scholars, and playwrights penning their works for the reading public. Similarly, this led to an explosion of educated gentry and what could even be called a rising "middle class," though it would not have been called such in the terms of the times. The period of prosperity saw England and Wales have a population of more than four million people, which had seen a near doubling over the previous century.

Portrait of James I.

James I was also known as James VI of Scotland; he would succeed the English throne following Elizabeth I dying childless. Despite being highly educated and enjoyed by his Scottish subjects, he would be viewed with suspicion by his new subjects, particularly as centuries of hostility between Scotland and England had created deep enmities between the nation. Further, James wanted to create a single unified monarchy among the nations, preferring to be the king of Great Britain, rather than the king of England, Scotland, and Ireland (as he was at the time). To achieve this, James wanted a common coinage, a common flag, the abolition of hostile laws, and a joint Anglo-Scottish plantation of Ulster. These would be all he could achieve, failing to promote further union by legislation.

Under James I, there was a vision of what would become the United Kingdom, but under his son, Charles I, the progress would be thrown out in favor of renewed tensions. Charles I was as different from his father as could be, noted as being shy and having a speech defect that made it difficult for him to make his pronouncements. His kingship led to crisis in Scotland and Ireland, leading to rebellions in both countries before leading to civil war and revolution, which sought to make the king one of the three estates of the kingdom. All three kingdoms—Ireland, England, and Scotland—were embroiled in civil war. In England, it was led by Oliver Cromwell, who set out to destroy the power and wealth of the elite. The Catholic Irish supported Charles I, on the condition of religious freedom. But following Cromwell and his successor's conquest, they sought to redistribute the Catholic Irish into specific regions.

Painted representation of the English Civil Wars.

Scotland found itself in another civil war, and yet, during this time, all three kingdoms found themselves at war with each other at various times. Further, there were several attempts on the part of the Parliament, Charles, and the military—which merged as a force during this period—to find a conclusion to the civil war. However, this would lead to the second Civil War, in 1648, and the king was blamed for the unnecessary loss of life, which led to the king being put on trial and Charles I being beheaded. This only increased hostility, with political power residing in the Council of State, the Rump Parliament, and the army that Oliver Cromwell led.

However, during various difficulties, the commonwealth failed, which led to the creation of the first British constitution, the Instrument of Government. This suggested the formation of Parliament, which was to be elected at least every three years, with Oliver Cromwell named protector. However, policies under this led to further civil unrest and the dissolution of the Long Parliament.

Portrait of Charles II.

Upon the failures of the civil war, Charles II was brought back to England, with a promise of a general pardon and formed the Convention Parliament in 1660 to oversee the specifics. This Parliament declared the restoration of the kings and lords, disbanded the army, and established a fixed income for the king through maintenance of the excise tax, and returned to the crown and bishops their previously confiscated estates. Further, he struggled to reduce and appease the religious tensions and groups of the country, to greater and lesser success. And, despite the Triennial Act, in 1684, Charles II failed to summon a Parliament, leading him to be fully the master of his state. During his reign, and due to the increase of military strength that was a result of the civil wars, which aided in the expansion of the English colonial dominions.

One of the most significant developments during this period and toward the eighteenth century was the formation of clearly defined and opposing political parties. These parties had taken the titles Whigs and Tories and first formed during the exclusion crisis of 1679-81, but with the Triennial Act of 1694, the party conflict was given life. Nine general elections were held between 1695 and 1713, which provided structure to party issues and pushed party leaders to the fore. The Tories, at this time, stood for the Anglican church, the land, and the principle of passive obedience. While the Whigs stood for Parliament's right to determine succession, for necessary measures to blunt the international pretensions of Catholic-absolutist France, and for a latitudinarian approach to religion and a generous interpretation of the Toleration Act.

The British empire continued to grow during this time, with small conflicts with Spain, France, and the Dutch Republic either ending or winding to an end, while Great Britain, as it was being called, was a rising military and navy power. War had also been beneficial for the slow push toward democratizing political power, as the need to raise taxes and money had increased the size and scope of the executive and the power and prestige of the House of Commons. During this period, Britain's agricultural production increased while its population remained stable.

Yet it struggled to assimilate the kingdom's Celtic countries—Wales, Ireland, and Scotland—into the wider Great Britain. Many individuals from the Celtic countries did not speak English and continued to belong to the Roman Catholic church rather than the Protestant faiths that reigned supreme on the British mainland. Scotland was only united to England and Wales in 1707 and retained its traditional educational, religious, legal, and cultural practices, causing internal divisions between the kingdoms. The divisions were exacerbated at the beginning of the century by the continued protestation from James Francis Edward Stuart (the son of James II, who had been expelled during the Glorious Revolution of 1688), who pressed his claim to the throne and garnered Scottish, Irish, and Welsh support.

Portrait of Anne, Queen of Great Britain.

However, in Parliament, the Whigs reigned over their Tory peers for the beginning of the century, leading to Robert Walpole, who led the Whigs and has been called the first prime minister of Britain. It is historically incorrect, as some ministers had been called prime ministers during Queen Anne's reign, and had been commonly used as a slur previous to Walpole's period of dominance as his party's first minister. Walpole did a lot during his time in politics to stabilize political power in Britain, but it has been noted that during his time as first minister, the country was at peace and economically successful. The end of Walpole's leadership of the Whigs would not hand power to the Tories, as had been expected, but caused political turmoil.

Despite the early trappings of democracy and the calls for a "general election," the system did not adequately reflect the state of public opinion and would not do so until the Reform Act of 1832. The system was not democratic. Power was controlled by those in possession of property, especially landed property, and to be considered eligible for election, a man had to possess land worth £600 per annum, and only adult males who possessed some kind of residential property were able to vote. This meant, of the population of roughly 7 million, 350,000 Britons may have been able to vote in the 1720s, or roughly one in four of the adult male population. Further, there were no secret ballots, and votes were done in public, meaning voters were liable to be coerced and influenced if not bribed by candidates.

By the middle of the eighteenth century, the texture and quality of life in Great Britain had changed. Towns and urban life had changed considerably, especially for those in the upper economic proportion of the country, while life in the countryside experienced little change, and it was estimated by economist Joseph Massie that the bottom 40 percent of the population survived on less than 14 percent of the nation's income. Further, one change in the fabric of the country was the establishment of the Bank of England and other finance companies, which made it possible to make money on the stock market, which created a class of wealthy, self-made men who made a fortune without being a landowner. This period also saw the emergence of London as the commercial and cultural capital of Great Britain as the only national metropolis. During the eighteenth century, there was an explosion of newspapers across the kingdom, with more than nine million newspapers sold every year by 1760.

Representation of the new factory floors of the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution is an economic transformation of the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century. However, it has been argued that by 1700, Britain was more industrialized as a state than its European competitors. And the industrialization of Britain did not, as has been argued, suddenly take off in the 1780s; rather, the industrialization was a process occurring over the entirety of the eighteenth century. And by 1800, Britain was by far the most industrialized state in the world with an economic growth rate that accelerated due to the industrialization. This growth coincided with an unprecedented growth in population from 1780 onward, seeing the population grow from about 8.3 mllion in 1770 to 14.2 million in 1821 without suffering from major famine or unemployment. However, as has been noted, early industrialization was not all hopeful, as working conditions were brutal, especially for children, and caused unheard-of environmental pollution while the unguarded machinery led to maiming and death.

Around the same time as mass industrialization came the French Revolution, which saw many in Britain hope that internal strife would weaken their main European rivalry. Meanwhile, others hoped the revolutionary spirit and the chance for an enlightened state would in turn accelerate political, religious, and social change in Britain. Around this time, Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man was published and sold well and has been argued to foster enthusiasm for democratic reform and alienation from the ruling class. Paine argued for suffrage, public education, old-age pensions, maternity benefits, and full employment while attacking forms of privilege, such as monarchy and aristocracy.

This spirit saw small societies form in various cities to argue for suffrage, such as in 1793 Scottish radicals held a British Convention in Edinburgh to which several corresponding societies sent delegates. And the convention would issue a manifesto demanding universal manhood suffrage and annual elections while affirming their faith in the principles of the French Revolution. However, these initiatives were always limited in their reach, and in the more rural areas, the reach of these initiatives was far less than in the more urban areas.

The revolutionary spirit was staunched, in part, due to the campaigns of Napoleon. The wars were massive in geographic scope, ranging across continents, ranging from 1793 to the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815, costing Britain massive amounts of money. The British army during this time expanded more than sixfold. The Royal Navy, responsible for the defense, aggression, trade, and empire of Britain grew further and faster still. And civil defense forces and militias increased due to fears of a French invasion of Britain. The first coalition of anti-French states would fall by 1797, and that year saw the cost of maintaining forces and subsidizing those of its European allies bring Britain to the brink of bankruptcy.

Painting of the Battle of the Nile.

However, in 1797, the British won a series of important naval victories, culminating in the 1798 Battle of the Nile, in which Nelson defeated the French fleet off Egypt, and safeguarding India in the eyes of Great Britain. In 1801, during the wars, an Act of Union was passed to amalgamate Ireland with Great Britain, creating the United Kindom, and ceasing the Dublin Parliament. War broke out in 1803 again, and Britain maintained its power at sea, capturing various French colonies and territories, with Nelson defeating the French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar in 1805. However, Napoleon continued to inflict serious military defeats on the continent, defeating the Austrians, Prussians, and Russians.

However, by 1809, largely due to Napoleon's strategic mistakes, the war began to turn in Britain's favor. In 1812, after the failure of the Anglo-American War of 1812 to distract Britain from the Napoleonic conflict, and then again with Napoleon's debilitating Battle of 1812 in Russia, it became a matter of time before Napoleon was defeated. Britain's success in the Napoleonic War was largely due to its incredible wealth. It had passed the Acts of Union with Scotland and Ireland, which tightened control over its Celtic periphery, and eroded the autonomy and risk posed by those countries, while also forming the United Kingdom.

Following the Napoleonic Wars, Britain had a relationship between state and society that contrasted with its European neighbors, where in the United Kingdom, many functions were performed by groups of self-governing citizens, either on an elective, but unpaid, official basis, as in the institutions of local government, or through voluntary organizations, where most European societies had these functions performed by a central government. Further, the United Kingdom continued to develop a strong bureaucratic element, while the society across Britain was becoming a relatively homogenous and stable society, especially after the integration of Scotland; while Ireland remained different from the remainder of the United Kingdom.

While the end of the Napoleonic Wars saw the United Kingdom emerge victorious, it also ushered in a period of open social conflict due in part to a post-war economic slump, and the toll industrialization took on the social life of the towns with a growing middle-class and working-class consciousness. The term middle class began to be used more frequently, along with discussions of working class and class in general, with a class identity that was not an outcome of social and economic experience but a term in public discourse.

As the nineteenth century continued, many pillars of the older order and older thinking began to die, which opened the doors for political reform and the potential for rewriting the constitutions that dictated the working of the government of the United Kingdom. This grew a liberal, regulative state in which institutionalized bureaucracy, rather than patronage and custom, began to drive the machinery of government. This led to the development of the factory inspectorate established in the 1833 Factory Act, which began to administer the growing realm of "public health" and the Poor Law.

Further, in 1835, with the Municipal Corporations Act, local governments began to develop as new machinery of the government. This began the Victorian period in Britain, which saw a flowering of civic administration. Similar reforms, some successful and others less so, continued in a bureaucratic way, through acts and statutes, such as the 1833 statute to end slavery in British colonies. And conflict over unpopular acts, such as the Poor Law of 1834 or the Reform Act of 1832 continued to define the movement of the government.

Portrait of common life in Victorian Great Britain.

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the nature of government continued to be defined, such as through the Corrupt Practices Act of 1854, which provided an exact definition of bribery, before a further act of 1883 would control election expenses, and the 1872 Ballot Act instituted electoral secrecy, grew parliamentary representation beyond communities to individuals. This gave the individual members of Parliament greater independence from their parties, with groups of members, regardless of party, coming together to support their interests, and reducing the overall power of the parties.

In 1867, under a more liberal government, the Second Reform Bill was passed, which almost doubled the electorate, adding 938,000 new names to the register and extending to many workingmen in towns and cities. This included creating forty-five new seats in the Parliament. And, during this period, the role of the crown reduced to that of merely ratifying the result of elections. By 1880, primary education was made compulsory, and in 1891, it became free, but it struggled under the power of the church which many objected to. The Public Health Act of 1875 created a public health authority in every area and, related Acts, gave local authorities the responsibility to embark upon schemes of slum clearance, while a factory act of 1878 fixed a fifty-six-hour workweek.

This was a period of great social change as well. Not only the rise of democracy, which was slow enough to seem compelled, moving through acts and legislation, but the most radical change may have come in the economic activities of individuals in the United Kingdom. In 1801, 22 percent of the workforce was employed in manufacturing, mining, and construction compared to 36 percent in agriculture; by 1851, manufacturing, mining, and construction had increased to 40 percent compared to 21 percent in agriculture; and by 1901 agriculture dropped to 9 percent. Further, the capital goods phase of industrialization began in the mid-nineteenth century, broadening the manufacturing base into areas such as shipping and engineering, which happened alongside the growth of the service industry, and the advent of mass consumption, which resulted in the slow growth of mass retailing by various stores.

Portrait of Queen Victoria.

Finally, with the coming of the railway, it seemed industrialization reached its peak. The railroad did much to lower transport costs, consume raw materials, and stimulate investment through extended capital markets. Further, the increased coalescence of industrialization in urban centers led to greater urbanization. This period in life in the United Kingdom would achieve the term "Victorianism," perhaps the only "ism" in history attached to the name of a sovereign, which captured the political and economic changes, along with social changes toward a restrained attitude typified by character, duty, will, earnestness, hard work, respectable comportment and behavior, and thrift.

Leisure would also, during this period, emerge as a distinct concept and activity, on a mass scale, and when the hours of labor were diminished became a more regular activity. At the same time, the concept of "recreation" emerged. This was defined as non-work time that should be designated to re-create the body and mind for the chief purpose of work. Around the concept of recreation grew the idea it should also be "rational," and institutions grew up around the concept to help laborers in their recreation. Further, the new working day and week, which was less demanding and more regular, led to the disappearance of old calendrical observances and rituals. However, some of these were retained and transformed into new purposes in the circumstances of increased urbanization and industrialization.

Around the end of the century came concerns regarding the limits of the liberal and regulative state. This was brought into relief with the British military failure in the South African War of 1899-1902 and with the "problem" of Ireland, which constitutional methods failed to solve. Further, there was a rethinking around the belief and operation of the state incorporating consideration of the collective characteristics of society—such as solidarity, interdependence, and common identity—in a more direct way than previously. From this thinking emerged the notion of a distinct social sphere, separate from economic and political realms, as a vital characteristic of a population. This was partially due to the influence of the thinking of Thomas Malthus and Charles Darwin.

One result of this new questioning came after 1905 with the foundation of what has since been called the welfare state. This saw the liberal government of the time embark upon a program of social legislation that involved free school meals in 1905, a school medical service in 1907, the Children's Act of 1908, and the Old Age Pensions Act of 1908. The last granted pensions to people over age seventy under prescribed conditions. Similarly, in 1908, miners were given a statutory working day of eight hours, while in 1909, trade boards were set up to fix wages where little or no trade unions existed, while labor exchanges were created to try to reduce unemployment. In 1911, toward this goal, the National Insurance Act was passed, whereby state and employers supplemented employees' contributions toward protection against unemployment and ill health.

These acts represented a new relationship between government and the social characteristics of the governed, with the rights of the individual and the family no longer secured by individual economic action, but by state action and the provision of pensions and benefits. These were considered social rights, such that individuals were in turn connected to a web of obligations, rights, and solidarities across their lives and social relations.

With these changing attitudes came concerns in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century over the British Empire, with the word "imperialism" gaining popularity as public opinion about the empire was changing. The colonies were widely considered burdens, and the material markets were seen as more effectively acquired through trade over conquest. Further, various conflicts, such as the Indian Mutiny of 1857-1958 and worsening relations in South Africa, led to greater disinterest in the continuation of the empire. Colonies dominated by people of British descent had already been given substantial power of self-government, including Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.

There were further passing of acts, such as the Parliament Act of 1911, which provided that finance-related bills could become laws without the assent of the Lords, and other bills would become law if they passed in the Commons but failed in the Lords three times in two years, shifting power, slowly, to the elected representatives versus the traditional, landed powers. Strikes through 1911 and 1912 from trade unions pushed for greater protections for workers. And, in parallel to labor agitation, suffragists fighting for women's rights were growing, and some resorted to militant tactics to reach their goals. Further, at this time, Ireland, which had been trying to secede from the United Kingdom, was on the brink of civil war.

British soldiers during the first world war.

The outbreak of World War I, starting for the United Kingdom with its declaration of war on Germany in August of 1914, brought an end to the threat of civil war in Ireland and focused the country on the coming conflict. A war cabinet was established, intended to reduce tensions over the conduct of the war, and it worked poorly, although it did resolve the armament crisis. However, the poor work led to the conscription of unmarried men, which would be delayed until a comprehensive bill for compulsory enlistment of all men between the ages of eighteen and forty-one was passed in May of 1916.

Image of the aftermath of Easter Rising.

On Monday of Easter Week in 1916, a rebellion in Dublin for Irish independence broke out. Initially, Irish public sentiment was against the rebellion, but Britain's punishment of the rebels, which included summary executions of fourteen individuals, turned Irish sentiment against the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, the fighting in Europe by 1916 was failing, with various military efforts failing to make headway in the stalemate. Toward 1918, the war continued to seem to go poorly for the United Kingdom, but the sudden armistice of November 11, 1918, led to a victory election set for December 1918, which grew in importance. Famously, the peace treaty with Germany, which came from the armistice, would burden Germany and set conditions that have been often held responsible for the outbreak of the Second World War.

A British woman voting in 1918 after the passing of the Representation of the People Act.

The importance of the 1918 election came from the Representation of the People Act of 1918. This act was one of the more important Acts in the progression of the United Kingdom's democracy, giving the vote to all men over age twenty-one and to all women over the age of thirty. This removed the previous property disqualifications and tripled the electorate. In an ironic turn of events, this election had the lowest voter turnout of any election in the twentieth century.

Beginning in 1919, with the conclusion of the First World War, agitation for Irish independence broke out again. The revolutionary movement organized guerrilla military operations against the British administration. Through 1920, the British government attempted to end the violence with violence, and it would not be until 1921, with demands across Ireland and Britain that fighting come to an end, that a truce would be arranged. Irish rebels signed a so-called treaty that allowed for the establishment of what was effectively a dominion government in Dublin. This established Irish independence from the United Kingdom which would lead to the Republic of Ireland.

The desire for an end to the fighting in Ireland reflected a larger mood across the post-war United Kingdom, which sought tranquility and stability. Further, the government was faced with high unemployment, industrial stagnation, foreign debts, and continuing demands for a better economy.

United Kingdom during the Great Depression.

Through the 1920s to 1929, that stability in the economy continued, if not with some small growth. However, that would be undone after the Wall Street stock market crash in 1929, which led to the Great Depression. By the spring of 1931, 25 percent of the country's workforce was unemployed. During this period, various disruptions in domestic politics impacted the attempts to rebuild the economy. Edward VIII ascended the throne in 1936, but following his romance with American Wallis Simpson and his decision to marry her came his abdication from the throne after it was determined he could not remain on the throne if he married her. This led to the succession of his younger brother, George VI to the throne.

Neville Chamberlain, prime minister of the United Kingdom at the beginning of WWII.

This controversy around the abdication of Edward VII saw the accession of Neville Chamberlain to the office of prime minister. During this period, Adolf Hitler had risen to power and began making threats to European peace, but Chamberlain followed a policy of accommodation with Germany and Italy. However, Chamberlain worked to rearm the British army and navy before declaring appeasement a failure and declaring war on Germany in 1939. This came after Germany had begun its campaign of European conquest, crossing the red line of an invasion of Poland in 1939. Chamberlain's policy failed, and in 1940, Chamberlain would resign. This led to, due to politicking between the Conservative and Labour parties, of Winston Churchill, whose political career had since 1936 been considered over, to be named the prime minister on May 10, 1940.

Winston Churchill would lead the UK through WWII, and shape perspectives on the war.

From the British perspective, World War II fell into three distinct phases. The first phase was the so-called phony war, which saw Britain attempt to defend France from German invasion and ended with the decision of France to ask for an armistice with Germany in June 1940. The second phase, often called the heroic phase, is considered when Britain stood alone with the battle for survive in the air over the British Isles which ended in December 1941 when the Soviet Union made a successful defense of Moscow and with the Japanese declaration of War on the United States. Then followed the third phase, the Grand Alliance, which lasted from December 1941 until Germany's capitulation in May 1945.

Following the end of the war, Britain's empire had, for one reason or another, ended, and the country had built up debts to other countries. Further, the economy and industries were in disarray, and in need of updates which had been put on hold for the past decade. Much of the assistance Britain had relied on during the war was ended as countries worked to rebuild, and Britain was bankrupt. However, a program of nationalization began, with the railroads and coal mines brought under state control, along with road transport, docks and harbors, and the production of electrical power. Further, during this period, the framework of the National Health Service was established, which provided free comprehensive medical care for every citizen.

Despite the withdrawal from the British empire, it would not be until the 1960s when Britain would officially pull out of some of their final colonies. This was also a time of rising concern around "national" interests as opposed to those of the empire's colonies. Through the 1960s and into the 1970s, labor interests ruled the country, with difficulties in productivity and unrest in trade unions that led to an economic development plan, which led to the devaluation of the pound, wage restraint, and an attempt to reduce the power of the trade unions which would fail.

The 1970s began with the United Kingdom joining the European Economic Community (EEC), which would be succeeded by the European Union, to restore economic growth and to break the power of the trade unions. However, the initial attempt to join the EEC would take until 1973, while the trade unions defeated many measures of industrial legislation, and the Arab oil embargo which began in 1973 made a national coal miners' strike from 1973-1974 effective. This would lead to an election. This led to a new government, which continued to attempt to join the EEC and be frustrated by labor unions, which led to the 1987 "Winter of Discontent," in which a series of industrial conflicts with the government seemed out of control and would force the new government from office.

Margaret Thatcher, one of the longest serving prime ministers in UK history.

This would lead to the May 1979 election of Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher achieved popularity by 1982, after sending armed forces to expel an Argentine force from the Falkland Islands. Thatcher's government would lead a wave of privatization of the economy, notably the railway system and transformation of the transportation infrastructure, which led to the public transport being perceived as chaotic and inefficient and an increase in private automobile use.

Image from Northern Ireland during the "Troubles."

Thatcher would also inherit the "Troubles" (as they were known) in Northern Ireland. These were spurred by the failure to address the discrimination against Catholics in Northern Ireland and was characterized by continuing increases in aggression in response to police overreaction from which the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) emerged. The IRA mounted an increasingly violent campaign against the British Army. During Thatcher's prime ministership, the IRA went on "hunger strikes," which failed to move her, and led to increased sympathy for the IRA. Nor would she be moved by a bombing in 1984 aimed at taking her life.

Despite these troubles, Thatcher won reelection in 1987, her third such victory, making her the longest-serving prime minister since the nineteenth-century leadership of Lord Liverpool. However, toward the end of her third term, she would lose the vote of her party, and would subsequently resign as prime minister and bring an end to "Thatcherism."

The final decade of the twentieth century would be difficult for the United Kingdom, especially after major economic policies were brought into question after "Black Wednesday" created instability in the United Kingdom's economy. This would lead to further disruptions through the government parties and result in general elections. In 1994, progress would finally be made regarding solving the problems in Northern Ireland. In that year, the IRA declared a cease-fire and Protestant paramilitaries followed suit soon after. And the Good Friday Agreement (Belfast Agreement) of 1998 at last brought peace to Northern Ireland. While in 2007, the Northern Ireland Assembly was restored, giving Ireland greater autonomy over itself.